건설산업의 이자보상비율 개선을 위한 이익조정 연구

[Purpose] Since 2015, the interest coverage ratio has been newly included as an evaluation item when calculating the evaluation system of construction capacity. This study focused on analyzing the explanatory relationship between interest coverage ratio and earnings management. [Methodology] As the main dependent variables, the discretionary accruals(DA) are estimated by modified Jones model(Dechow et al., 1995), and Interest coverage ratios are measured as the percentage of operating earnings to financial interest expenses. The test sample consists of 350 construction firm－year data, selected from the KRX listed companies of the fiscal year during 2012 －2018. [Findings] As a result of correlation analysis, discretionary accrual and interest coverage ratio showed a significant positive correlation, and the correlation coefficient of these variables since 2015 was higher than in pre－2014. The mean difference analysis showed that the interest coverage ratio was significantly higher in the group with high discretionary accruals, and the discretionary accrual was significantly higher in the group with high interest coverage ratio. Finally, multiple regression analysis showed interest coverage ratio had a significant effect on discretionary accruals. In addition, after 2015 interest coverage ratio was statistically significant in the discretionary accrual, while there was no significant explanatory power before 2014. [Implications] This study will have a timely contribution to presenting the empirical results that the aggressive earnings management can be used to report the interest coverage ratio newly applied to the evaluation system of construction capacity after 2015.